Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1887-03-25
A METEMPsYCHOLOGI0AL PERIL.
suncrings OF Man with h"bbits
Eve In His IIend.

Eye I'm Ills Head
II is probable that no greater stroke
If fortune could have befallen Mr..
Charles A. Williams. of Minneapolis,
than the recent failure Of surgeon IN
this ETY. to insert a rabbits eye IN ms
head and make il grow there. Mr..
Williams lost one Of his own eyes when
he was only IL years old, and having
prejudice against glass eyes on account
of their unhappy habit OF trying TO
look around corners and OF gaz ng
heavenward when the natural eye IS
bent upon the ground, his soul was
filled with hope when he learned that a
New York ophthalmist was satisfied
that he could transplant rabbit eye
TO the human head and induce 1t TO
take root and grow. He came to this
city. and a large rabbit with lustrous
hazel ewes was selected for the victim.
Mr.. Wilam was informed that there
was no hope of his being able TO see
with the rabbits eye, but that 1t would
have more natural appearance than
a glass eve and would conduct Itself In
harmony with his other organ of
vision. 1t is only fair 10 presume how
ever. that this was merely a little sub
terfuge on the part OF the surgeon to
induce his patient to submit to the
operation, for if the optic nerve had
taken root and grown. and the eye had
lived and fourshed, there is every rca-
son 10 believe that il would have con-
tnued to see as well from under Mr..
Williams cyelashes as from the rab-
bits.
Still il would have been only rab-
bits eve after all, and whatever IL was
would have been seen from a rabbits
standpoint. Mr.. Williams must grad
ually have acquired the habits and
mode of thought of rabbit at least
on that side of his body most affected
by the new eye, and tbs unnatural
blending of human nature with rabbit
nature would have been far more in
convcn ent than if he had had two rab-
bits eyes, and had thus been wholly
metempsychosed IT, for instance,
with this rabbit eye controlling HIM on
one side and the man nature on the
other, he had gone hunting and en-
countered a fox, the man part OF him
would have been for shooting the fox.
and the rabbit instinct would have inn
PEELED him TO quit the neighborhoOd "a
rapidly and unostentatiously As posi-
BILE He would thus have been torn
with conflicting emotions. and few
such experiences must have undermined
his health and broken him down physi-
cally and mentally.
How would he have conducted HIM
self when walking through his own
garden? Would the tender green let
tuce and the beautiful red-veined beet
tops most have delighted the eye of the
man side or tcklcd the dainty palate
Of the rabbit side? But these things
would have been trivial compared with
his inevitable feeling, had hunger
driven him to seek q restaurant, and
had he there found dead and dressed
rabbit hanging by the heels in the
window. The man side would have
urged him to 60 in and eat. and the
rabbit side would have torn him away
with loathing and disgust Such trials
must in time worn out his manly will
force, and left the rabbit side in the
ascendant, in which case he would have
been liable at any moment 20 make in
cursions upon the Minneapolis lawns,
hopping about on all-fours over the
rich green grass taking here a nibble
and there a nbble, till at length his
very appearance might have changed
with his instincts. his ears elongated
and stood upright and the unhappy
man have fallen victim at last 10 some
street dog. This great peril Mr.. VIII
liams has escaped By tho failure of the
rabbits eye.-Nci0 YORK. Times.